Rob Rupert, right, an education support specialist with Laerdal, trains nursing staff from Butler Memorial Hospital and Butler County Community College on Friday with a SimMan simulated patient at BC3. The patient, purchased by the college four years ago, is used to educated nurses in realistic medical scenarios.

BUTLER TWP— In an obviously distressed voice, the patient cried out "I feel like I could die."

But with this patient there's no chance of that happening. The SimMan on the table can be reprogrammed when his heart stops beating.

That's a great benefit to nursing students, said Mary Ann Hiser, interim dean of nursing and allied health at Butler County Community College.

The nursing faculty at the college Friday teamed with nursing staff at Butler Memorial Hospital for a demonstration of all the simulated patient can do.

Rob Rupert of Laerdal, the company that makes SimMan, was at the college that day to train 15 women from both organizations on how to realistically represent medical emergencies.

The women plan to use their knowledge helping nursing students learn how to handle medical situations before the students start clinical work.

The SimMan can talk about his symptoms and complain of pain. Its body can make the heart, lung, and bowel noises a nursing student needs to hear. Rupert said it can also be programmed by the instructors with custom phrases.

The patient also reacts to what measures students take to relieve a medical emergency and can simulate conditions to help students gain assessment and diagnostic skills.

"If they make a mistake, they can learn in a more realistic way," Hiser said.

Before the college got SimMan and accompanying SimBaby, students learned on mannequins.

"The mannequins are static," Hiser said. "This gives us the capability of making things like lung sounds."

Both simulated patients are connected to a console with two screens. The top screen is visible to students and includes vital statistics such as heart rhythm and pulse.

The bottom screen is designed for instructors who use pre-preprogrammed medical emergencies or manually make the patient complain of chest pain and start wheezing, for example, Rupert said.Hiser said the college has used the patient in very limited use since it bought it four years ago. Now, she wants to expand its use.The SimMan is listed on Laerdal's Web site for $27,000. The simulated baby costs the same.The college invited nurses from the hospital's Center for Clinical Advancement because the hospital in the past has invited the nursing faculty to training sessions at Pittsburgh hospitals, Hiser said.The hospital staff was particularly interested because during renovations and expansion, the hospital plans to add a simulated lab. In return, the hospital has invited college students to visit the hospital's lab when it is finished, continuing the partnership, Hiser said.

Karen Aul, a nursing instructor at BC3 laughs as she checks the bloody pressure of Simman as Rob Rupert, a Education Support Specialist from Laerdal trained professional from Butler Memorial Hospital and BC3 to help them be more educated on the simulated patient at BC3 on Friday January 16, 2009.